I am building a list of the “secret” books on game design. These are books that are not explicitly written about games, but which any game designer who reads them just knows that they are really about games. At the moment I have two:Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, by Scott McCloud

McCloud does for comics what every game designer would love to do for games: he writes a compelling argument for why the medium is more than the message. He shows that comics can be much more than escapist superhero fantasy, and he makes a cogent analysis of the mechanisms of comic book construction — mechanisms that readers are intimately familiar with yet may never have considered in isolation. And he does it all in the medium he describes! Could a game designer do the same?

I know that computer scientists are wild on the whole design pattern idea, but there is something about Alexander’s original book that isn’t there in the software-pattern community, or even in Bjork and Holopainen’s Patterns in Game Design. I just recently realised why.

Alexander is teaching that architecture, like game design, is essentially about interaction. It is the Mechanic – Dynamic – Aesthetic paradigm all over again. It’s easy to focus on the mechanics, in this case the structures that you build, and think that they are the source of the aesthetics (beautiful and usable environments). Alexander’s patterns, while they may name certain mechanics, are really about the dynamics — how do people interact with the mechanics and what are the aesthetic outcomes. It is only through understanding these dynamics that the link between mechanics and aesthetics can be properly made.

There are other books that I strongly recommend to game developers — The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman is one that springs immediately to mind — but these two feel more intimately about games. Are there others?

I wouldn’t stop with “The Design of Everyday Things”, I’d also include Norman’s “Emotional Design”, just because I think we’re realizing that game design is about inducing emotions in the hearts/minds of gamers (whether it’s fiero or love or joy or whatever)

I totally agree with you on Understanding Comics. I just can’t look at sequential art the same way anymore! I end up deconstructing it, and it all just makes so much more sense. Deisgn on everyday things is actually next on my to-read pile, after my bookclub book.

I’d also recommend Killing Monsters, because you look at the escapism and informal education of playing in a completely different way.

I wish I could remember off the top of my head more of the books that have inspired me!

@Brian
I never managed to finish the Glass Bead Game. I was attracted by the concept but it just got too weird and arbitrary for me. I’ll keep an eye out for the Carse book.

@Joe
Emotional Design is definitely on my wish list. Since reading DOET I haven’t been able to look at a doorknob the same way again.

@Rayna
I’ve been trying to work out how to design a game that does for game design even a small fraction of what UC does for comics.

I envisage a ‘SimGame’ game – like SimCity, but in which the player is a level designer for a 1st person shooter and the AI plays the part of the player(s). You’d have a limited budget to spent on monsters, power-ups, cut-scenes, cool lighting effects, etc.

The aim would be for the designer add and arrange elements of the level to optimise the AI’s ‘fun’. The problem is it would be very tricky to write an AI for this.

Try checking out “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Although he does mention games a bit, it’s about enjoyment in general: a study of what activities make people achieve the “flow” state, and how to make you achieve that state more in your life (i.e. enjoy life more.)

The trick, it seems, is to make everything you do into a game. The checklist for what is required for an activity to provide flow is notably similar to what makes a game, and especially a GOOD game.

I don’t know if you are going to delve into books regarding the meaning of play. But I’m always confronted with Johan Huizinga’s Homo Ludens, and Roger Caillois’ Man, Play, and Games. Don’t know how secret those are, but definitely foundational. Also, On the Emotions by Richard Wollheim.

Emergence, by Steven Johnson is one of my favorites for non-game design game design books.

And if you happen to be in MMO customer support, ‘If you give a mouse a cookie’ comes to mind..

@Malcom – that was basically the premise for Raph’s book on game design – do an understanding comics for games. It wasn’t, however, a game itself, which would have been very interesting but perhaps hard to pull off.

It’s a psychology book on how people get into a sense of “flow” causing time to pass by quickly, total effortless control and concentration, and forgetting about everything else on their mind.
A game that puts you in a state of “flow” is the aim of many game designers.

McCloud’s a genius, and while I’d agree that Understanding Comics definitely is pertinent to game design, I’d add that his Reinventing Comics has much to say about the games *industry* and as such is a must read.

Another good add to your list is “Our Band Could Be Your Life” about the indie punk rock scene of the early 90’s, and I’d say is a blue print for indie game development.

I would recommend Csikszentmihalyi’s Beyond Boredom and Anxiety over the later book. It’s where he first identified and named “flow.” The later Flow book folks are mentioning above is a bit watered down for my tastes. Beyond Boredom and Anxiety has a deeper more fulfilling explanation of everything and is supported by research in-text. Plus, it’s just as readable as
Csikszentmihalyi’s bemused, flowing (badump-chishhh) style is still there :).

Also, nice to see you building a list like this. I agree that stuff like Norman and McCloud is super topical for game designers :).

I would also recommend “A Whack to the Side of the Head” by Roger Von Oech and “Basic Economics” by Thomas Sowell. Ooh, ooh, and “The Face of Battle” by John Keegan for anyone who’s designing, playing, or thinking of designing any kind of war game. It’s exquisite all around.

What about The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, thats an absolute necessity.

Every game designer MUST know about of the Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer and its power and magnificence. Its a science fiction tail about the creation and use of the ultimate video game. One that can successfully raise and educate any child to a fuller extent than any human parent possibly could.

Of course it’s not really explicitly spelled out, and thats a realization that I didn’t really reach for a while. But every game designer really has to know what video games could achieve and strive to reach out in that direction.

non-fiction
The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell
101 things I learned in architecture school by matt frederick
but the real winner for me is…
Mirror Worlds by David Gelernter (written in 1991 but WOW, totally about immersive online worlds)

(note that if I were to list 10 others they would be ones already listed above – Pattern Language, DOET, UC, TOFun, Flow, ….)

fiction:
Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
True Names by Vernor Vinge
Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow

[…] been released. The review project was prompted, in part, by his recently starting a list of “Secret Books of Game Design” – books that are not explicitly about the topic, but which are well-known by […]

[…] a huge amount of content there yet, but there is an absolutely terrific ongoing project on ‘The Secret Books of Games Design’, a series tracking books indirectly about videogames, such as Scott McCloud’s famous […]

[…] McCloud’s Big Triangle. For those unfamiliar with it (and if this is you, you should go read Understanding Comics right now), it is a depiction of the continuum of artistic styles between realistic, iconic and […]

I'm writing a paper about the narrative mechanics of The Road and I'd like to illustrate it with stories from players. Any of you who have played the game: can you write me a paragraph about your experience? What were the best dramatic moments that you remember?